.Political Tidbits is the prestigious column of Belinda Olivares-Cunanan that ran for 25 continuous years in the op-ed page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the newspaper that she helped put up with its multi-awarded founder, the legendary Eugenia Duran-Apostol, in December 1985, just two months before the EDSA Revolution.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

A Christmas Story on reconciliation and forgiveness. A touching display of political civility aboard Air Force One by US leaders and spouses enroute to and from Mandela funeral services. Will we ever see similar civility among our own leaders beyond Veterans Hospital?

Blessed Pope John Paul II as model of humility

Christmas is the time when
we ponder on the humility of God who descended on earth on a day such as today over
two thousand years ago, and became one of us, in order to offer His life for
our salvation.

In a past blog I wrote about
the behavior of some of our politicians which smacks of arrogance and puffed-up
sense of self-importance and power--- in total contrast to the humility of the
God-Man. Allow me on this special day to
recall a beautiful story that will make us feel the redemptive power of grace---as
triggered by the humility of one special person. This is a true story.

XXX

One day a priest who was in
Rome for a religious event was walking toward the Vatican when he came across a
beggar in a street corner. The priest
walked past him, but then something tugged at his memory strings and he walked
back and queried the beggar, “Don’t I know you? The man began shaking his head
as though to say, how can you possibly KNOW ME? But the thought that he had
seen the man before continued to nag the priest and he stood scrutinizing the
beggar’s unshaven, dirty face. Then it
dawned on him.

Wait a minute, he said with
incredulity, weren’t you and I ordained together? Yes, yes, we were, we were.
But the beggar continued to shake his head and crying, no, no, as he tried to
wave the priest away.

The priest walked away but
later in the Vatican, he found the chance to speak to Pope John Paul II and he
told him of his encounter at the street corner and how positive he was that
this was the same man who was ordained with him some time back. JPII listened
and then called his secretary and asked him to prepare two tickets to a meal
with him for the priest and a friend.
Bring him here, ordered the Pope.

The priest was by now
extremely excited, but unsure of his mission. He went back to the beggar and
told him about the tickets given to him. Imagine, said the priest, you and I
can dine with the Pope! You have to come with me. But the beggar kept saying
no, no. How could he, grimy and smelly as he was?

The priest begged him, “please
don’t turn down the Pope,” showing him the tickets. Finally he wore out the beggar’s
will and they went to his hotel room where the beggar had a good bath and shave,
and a decent haircut. The priest got him some presentable clothes.

At the appointed meal event,
they showed up and the Pope was solicitous and put the beggar at ease with some
chit-chat. Then came the big moment: John Paul II asked the man to hear his
confession. But Holy Father, said the beggar, I can’t. If you only know what
kind of life I went through, my very dark past, all the sins…”

He begged off but JPII was
insistent, stressing to his visitor that once a priest, always a priest. And they went off to a corner where JPII
confessed to the beggar. At that point
the man, deeply touched by JPII’s humility and doubtless God’s grace, began to
weep inconsolably. As theologians like to say, he must have seen his whole life parade in front of him and this time it was his turn to ask Pope John Paul II
to hear his confession.

Afterwards, the Pope gave
him a unique but predictable assignment: to look after the beggars of Rome.

XXX

Pope John Paul II, to be
canonized with Pope John XXIII this coming April 27, was such a humble man. The
story is also told that in one gathering of cardinals and bishops in the
Vatican, one eminent personality sought to rationalize why some things that
needed to be done weren’t done by saying he was quite busy. To which the Pope
retorted with a touch of impatience and irritation: “But aren’t we ALL busy?“

Then, perhaps realizing that
he might have hurt the high-ranking prelate’s feelings and even his ego, John
Paul later asked him to hear his confession. That was his way of stressing two
things: the importance of the sacrament of reconciliation with God and as a way
to reconcile with one's fellowman.

XXX

One of Star columnist Alex
Magno’s best pieces definitely was his account yesterday, Christmas Eve, of
former President Joseph Estrada’s visit last Sunday to his successor, former
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in Veterans Memorial Hospital. Veteran political
analysts are usually razor-sharp in analyzing political events, but they become
all too human and therefore so touching when they analyze encounters of human
beings. As Alex put it, “Last Sunday’s visit…was infinitely more than returning
an act of humanity (referring to PGMA’s two visits to Erap in detention), a
gesture of political civility” and he recounted the warm exchange of pleasantries
between the two leaders who have shared a common experience.

I suppose that Archbishop of
Jaro, Iloilo Angel Lagdameo was so similarly moved by Alex’s account that he
now suggests that in view of the recent visit of Estrada visit to GMA and last
October of former President Fidel Ramos to her, President Aquino should now, in
the spirit of Christmas, go and visit GMA too.

XXX

That Archbishop Lagdameo’s
suggestion would be honored by P-Noy may be as long a shot as PH’s sending a
man to the moon. Erap, however, is a naturally warm personality who’s easy to
empathize with a fellow sufferer, especially if it’s a female under duress
(talagang may pusong mammon siya for the “weaker” sex).

But one day some years back I saw a different Erap from the person who emerged from
Alex’s Veterans account. That time he was going down an escalator in a Pasig Mall after
attending the launch of Joe de Venecia’s autobiography, and by a fantastic coincidence, former President Ramos was on the other escalator, going up to the book launch. I happened to be on the ground floor and I saw the two former presidents on the escalator, completely snubbing each other by looking in the opposite direction---so much so that I feared they could
both tumble down. They did look quite
silly acting that way and I thought, what it would have taken if suddenly one
of them said Hi! to the other one? Similarly, what would it
take if quite suddenly P-Noy dropped in on GMA at Veterans this season?

XXX

Former bitter US political adversaries having big laugh aboard Air Force One in published photo by White House photographer Pete Souza

In contrast to the lack of communicability among our officials I found quite moving a series of
photographs taken by White House photographer Peter Souza, which accompanied an
article in “Policy MIC” entitled “8 Photos You Didn’t See from Obama’s Trip to South Africa” by freelance
writer Nino Ippsolito.

The article stressed that
there was a lot of international to-do over the “selfie” photo of Obama with the
comely Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt and British PM David Cameron, showing
them smiling broadly for the cell-camera at the memorial service for the late
Nelson Mandela, or of former US President George Bush posing with pop
star Bono. Aside from overshadowing the memorial services themselves and
heartfelt messages delivered by Mandela’s family and former colleagues, writer
Ippsolito said such outcries “overlook the close quarters in which our
Democratic and Republican politicians actually live and work.”

XXX

And indeed, how heartwarming
it was to see Peter Souza’s photos taken inside Air Force One showing past and
present US Presidents, the incumbent First Lady and two other former First Ladies enroute to or returning from the
Mandela services, sensibly sharing one plane for the long trip to and from South
Africa and having a grand time inside. All bitter political campaignings vs.
one another or in support of rival candidates in past years were comfortably left
behind. One photo depicted the Bushes, the Obamas and Hillary Clinton gathered
around the Air Force dining table chatting amiably and another with them having a good laugh over an Ipod showing Bush’s paintings.

Wrote Nino Ippsolito: “It’s
time that we acknowledge that conservative and liberal (US) politicians spend
more time together and have more in common with one another, than we’d like to
believe.”

Will we see more of “such
gestures of civility” as Alex Magno put it, beyond the confines of the Veterans
Memorial Hospital? When was the last time the National Security Council was
even convened?

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Bel Cunanan

Belinda Olivares-Cunanan is a veteran journalist with 25 years of experience writing a political column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. She is a Rotary Club of Manila Hall of Fame awardee for journalism. She has also received the Distinguished Alumna Award from her elementary and high school alma mater, the College of the Holy Spirit, and the Alumni Association Professional Award for Journalism from the University of the Philippines (UP).